North Hills' Emily Jamison scores the winning goal, her seventh of the game, against Chartiers Valley during the Division 2 girls lacrosse championship game Thursday May 24, 2012 at Martorelli Stadium.

TribLIVE Sports Videos

Email Newsletters

Daily Photo Galleries

Traveling by Jeep, boat and foot, Tribune-Review investigative reporter Carl Prine and photojournalist Justin Merriman covered nearly 2,000 miles over two months along the border with Mexico to report on coyotes — the human traffickers who bring illegal immigrants into the United States. Most are Americans working for money and/or drugs. This series reports how their operations have a major impact on life for residents and the environment along the border — and beyond.

Evidently, Peters Township junior Hannah Wilcox wasn't all that thrilled the first half of Thursday's WPIAL Division I girls lacrosse final ended in a tie.

With plenty of help from its biggest offensive threat, Peters Township scored seven of the first eight goals of the second half and survived a late Pine-Richland push to earn a 21-18 win at North Hills' Martorelli Stadium.

“We came out, score was 0-0 and we wanted this,” Wilcox said. “We came out with heart and determination because we've worked so hard for this.”

Wilcox had six goals to bring her season total to 59. Two of those came during the Indians' eight-and-a-half-minute onslaught, the prettiest coming after she created a turnover, spun and buried a shot into an open cage.

Peters Township sophomore Allison Hurley had five goals, four in the second half. Rachel Berquist and Sarah Bootman added hat tricks.

Drew Hayden and Brittany Byerly — two of four Pine-Richland players with more than 30 goals this season — led the Rams with seven and six goals.

“They're two seniors who will be missed next year,” Pine-Richland coach Tori Trombetta said. “We have a bunch of great underclassmen, but they're so strong with their presence and their leadership. They're phenomenal lacrosse players.”

The title was Peters Township's first since winning three straight from 2007-09, giving the Indians (17-4) the distinction of being the only WPIAL team with four Division I championships.

Peters Township advances to the PIAA tournament and will play the District 3 champion — either Cocalico or Manheim Township — next Wednesday. Pine-Richland (16-3) will meet the District 6 or District 10 champ the same night.

The teams played to a 7-7 tie in the first half, with Wilcox and Byerly matching each other with three goals. Pine-Richland led, 7-5, following Drew Hayden's second goal, but Peters' Sarah Bootman sliced through the Rams' defense, and Hurley bounced a shot that beat goalkeeper Kaelin Clogan.

A few minutes into the second half, the outcome had been decided.

“My girls always take a few minutes to recuperate then they come out hard,” Peters coach Kristin Caponi said. “You never know what to expect with them, but when they're on fire and they all want it, that's what you get.”

In the Division I consolation game, Mt. Lebanon held off Shady Side Academy, 16-13, getting four goals from Cameron Quinn and three from Cara Lucke.

Shady Side Academy's Felicia Tissenbaum led all scorers with five goals. Neither Mt. Lebanon (13-6) nor Shady Side (12-4) advance to the PIAA tournament.

North Hills 11, Chartiers Valley 10 — When North Hills girls lacrosse coach Rachel Hoza came off the field after her squad's 11-10 win over Chartiers Valley in the WPIAL Division II championship game, she had one way to describe how the win felt.

“It's a very prideful feeling right now,” the sixth-year coach said. “I can't say enough good things about them. Seeing them go from not knowing how to play lacrosse to being champions has been great to see.”

The win gave the Indians a second straight Division II title and pushed their undefeated streak to 40 games. North Hills trailed Chartiers Valley, 9-8, with just more than five minutes to play before senior Emily Jamison scored three straight goals, including the game winner with 1:01 left. Jamison finished with seven goals.

TribLive commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments  either by the same reader or different readers.

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.

Total Promotional Solutions

A division of Trib Total Media is your one-stop-shop for all of your branded merchandise needs.

We specialize in providing quality affordable promotional products for every type of business including non-profits, schools, universities, sports teams and more. With 1000’s of products to choose from, our knowledgeable staff can help you find the perfect apparel item or product to suit your needs and budget.

Digital Sales

We offer a wide variety of traditional and new digital advertising options customized to fit your needs!

Whether you're just starting out, or you've been a keystone in the community for years, our knowledgeable staff can provide you with a customized package including online banners/advertisements, Social Media Marketing (Facebook / Twitter), Website development, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing solutions and much more!

Contact your local sales rep today for details, personalized proposal and a meeting to discuss how we can meet your needs.